Ms Pauline Hanson and her anti-immigration One Nation Party will face their first test of federal support on October 3rd after the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, yesterday announced the date for a general election.
Mr Howard, whose conservative coalition is defending a large majority and is ahead in the polls, said the election would be fought on issues of economic management and taxation reform. He is pinning his hopes on a plan to introduce a 10 per cent VAT-style tax and cut other taxes. "In the area of taxation we have a plan for the nation's future. Labour has a series of promises to buy votes."
But the Labour opposition leader, Mr Kim Beazley, warned that the agenda would be far wider including health, unemployment and the threat that One Nation could hold the balance of power in parliament. While both leaders have said they would not to form a government with Ms Hanson, after its surprise showing in the recent Queensland state poll One Nation is expected to put up candidates for most of the lower house's 148 seats.
"The battle lines are drawn, and we're just raring to go," said a jubilant Ms Hanson, who has tapped into a rich vein of voter discontent with her anti-Asian and anti-Aboriginal xenophobia. But due to a redistribution, the independent MP has been forced to stand where her re-election is far from guaranteed.
Mr Beazley, who is a close friend of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is also in danger of losing his marginal seat in Perth due to support for One Nation. He said the real test would be about security and opportunity for all Australians, and the lack of leadership displayed by Mr Howard in his refusal to confront Ms Hanson and support multiculturalism and Aboriginal land rights.
"Over the last couple of years as a people we have turned in on ourselves in a process which has not been discouraged by this government, but we need to emerge from this election with our sense of generosity intact," he said.
It's only 21/2 years since Labour was swept from office after 13 years by Mr Howard's landslide victory, and the party needs a uniform swing of 4.5 per cent to regain power. Mr Howard claims his major achievements have been to introduce uniform gun laws and turn a $10.5 billion deficit into a surplus.
But the spectre of One Nation, whose policies include restoring tariff protection, loosening gun laws and introducing zero net migration, continues to hang over his term in office.
Senator Meg Lees, leader of the small but powerful Democrats Party, said: "The last Senate poll showed it would either be the Democrats or One Nation with the balance of power."
A new Unity Party aimed at fighting One Nation in the Senate and promoting multiculturalism was launched yesterday in Sydney. Its leader, Mr Jason Yat-Sen Li, said: "We think there's a large group of Australians who haven't had a voice up to now and are very, very concerned about these issues."